


a pitiful thing

by calcetineys



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 6B AU, also there's mega mind references, ambiguous ending, and that's the au, quora answers taught me what I know about concussions so, where basically nothing happens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-26 14:34:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19007767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calcetineys/pseuds/calcetineys
Summary: “You don’t care about anything but yourself,” Mason tells him.





	a pitiful thing

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you saw the tag about the concussions.

All that’s missing, Mason thinks, once he figures out what’s happened, is the pit of vipers under him. Granted, the snake he’s hanging from is more than enough to make up the deficit. 

It’s like a Bond movie, or- or, like, what was that one movie with the blue alien who pronounced ‘spider’ as ‘spee-eye-der’? Like that, only with snakes instead of alligators and instead of actual snakes, it’s a human snake he’s hanging from. And instead of just smacking him in the face, said human snake is all that’s keeping him from a thousand foot drop into a ravine.

“Would’ve… rather had the spee-eye-der,” Mason swallows. 

He might be a bit dizzy.

Not-Spee-Eye-Der-Man’s grip on his wrist shifts. “Did you hit your head?”

“The context suggests so, though I don’t remember. I’d ask if you remember, but what good would that do?” Mason looks up and asks him. Then he thinks about it. “More harm then good, actually.”

NSEDM rolls his eyes. Mason takes it as a good sign that he's able to string those letters together. 

“Definitely more harm than…” Mason trails off, shutting his eyes against the dizziness. Not having anything stable underneath him is not helping. 

But then he thinks that he should worry because he feels his own grip on the arm he’s been clutching start to slack. Why is he holding on to this arm again?

“Shit,” SEDMN swears. “Mason, stop!”

“You stop,” Mason mutters, because EDM NM- wait, that’s not right, that sounds like an Eminem remix YouTube channel. Well, that sounds preferable to… what is he doing again?

“Why are you holding my arm, dude?”

He hears another curse from- oh.

Right. 

“We need to get you to the hospital.”

“Hospital,” Mason says. “Yeah. That’s preferable. They have Reese’s. Better than here, where all there is Not M&M Man.”

He thinks it’s probably good that he can still do word play. Too bad it’s a bit too convoluted for his audience. But it’s not like Theo deserves the laugh. 

Mason sighs.

“I blame Scott.”

“So do I.”

“You don’t _get_ to say that,” Mason says.

“Oh, I can’t agree with you now?” Theo asks. 

“No. Keep your agreements to yourself. And your hand, why are you touching me?”

Theo sighs. “To keep you from falling into a ravine.”

Mason looks down.

“I think we both know I would take my chances on one over the other.”

He waits for the retort or for Theo to just drop him, because Theo _would_ do that. It'd definitely help his own chance of survival, because he can't exactly climb back up the cliff with one hand keeping Mason up. But nothing happens. Mason would look up to see why that is, but he’s tired and the way the fog rolls way, way down in the ravine is kind of entrancing.

That trance is broken by something shaking his arm, and since that arm is holding all his weight, it _isn’t pleasant._

“What?” he groans.

“You’re falling asleep while we’re hanging from the side of a cliff, while you have what I’m pretty sure is internal bleeding in your _head._ ”

“I’ve made worse decisions. Haven't we all?” Mason says. Because it's true. And he liked looking down at that fog, so he’s feeling a little ungracious right now. “Remember when everyone trusted you?”

He wonders why they all did that, why he didn't realize, even just from the glimpses he had gotten of Theo back then, that he wasn't a good person. He’s had so many examples of actually decent, if flawed, people. Like his parents. Like Liam. Like Scott.

God, like Melissa.

Melissa, who will probably have to deal with this hospital visit- if he ever actually makes it that far. Melissa, who _shouldn’t_ have to be strong enough to deal with seeing and working with her son’s killer, but is anyway. 

“Can we go now?” Mason asks, and doesn’t bother caring about the shake in his voice. 

It’s quiet for a while, just the sounds of the forest and Mason may or may not be hearing things, but he thinks he can pick up the faint sounds of the creature they’d been chasing. He can’t remember what it is right now, or how it had thrown them off a cliff, but it must have. 

“We aren’t dangling here because I want to be, Mason,” Theo finally answers. 

“How far are we from the top?” Mason asks, because apparently resignation helps clear his mind. “Can you- can you throw me up there?”

Theo doesn’t answer for a minute. “I don’t think so.”

“You don't think so.”

"It wouldn't do you any good."

"Sure."

“We're too far down, alright? If you hadn't noticed, I'm trying _not_ to get you killed.”

“Why? Because it'll make you look good?”

“Are you still on that?”

Is he still-

Mason looks up at him then, looks with wide, burning eyes and says, “Yes.”

Theo stares at him. 

Mason stares right back, and maybe-maybe he’s done being patient, of putting whatever issue they’re dealing with first. Of pushing this down, because look where that's gotten him. 

So he finally says all the things he didn't bothered saying during the Wild Hunt. 

“I am never going to get past that. Not with you here, _always_. You act like nothing happened, like it’s easy to forget,” he says. “You- you put Lydia in _Eichen House_. You shot Malia and left her for dead. You turned Scott against Kira- you used Corey- you were going to _kill_ Liam- you- you actually _did_ kill Scott.”

Theo keeps staring at him, his eyes burning and wet and Mason just-

“And I know,” Mason whispers. “That you don’t care about any of it. You’re holding me up right now, but if I wasn’t useful to you, you’d stop.”

Theo doesn’t say anything to deny it. 

“You don’t care about anything but yourself,” Mason tells him. “And that’s a pitiful thing to care about.”

Mason watches Theo, _watches_ him. He watches as tears fall from Theo's face and must keep falling past his head, his feet, into the ravine below them.

“Just try to tell me I’m wrong.”

Theo finally whispers, “No.”


End file.
